As one of only two mares in the field, Lady Blitz pulled the 10-1 upset over her male counterparts in the featured event of the evening, a $22,000 Invitational trot, at Hoosier Park Racing & Casino on Saturday, September 13.
Given a perfect, pocket trip by driver James Yoder, Lady Blitz stopped the timer in 1:53.4 to score her seventh win of the season.
Leaving from post five, Yoder sent Lady Blitz away from the gate firing to grab a pocket seat behind Creatine and Trace Tetrick, who got the first call in :27.1. Creatine led the field to the second station in :56.2, but was quickly joined on the outside by the post time favourites, Natural Herbie and Verlin Yoder, who were unable to find a spot along the rail.
After being parked out for much of the mile, Natural Herbie pressed on and was able to reach the leader’s wheel at the three-quarter clocking in 1:25.2. While much of the damage was being done on the front, Lady Blitz waited patiently to make her move from the pocket.
Natural Herbie was able to wear down the tiring leader, but the taxing trip began to take its toll on him as well. Lady Blitz was given the green light and she exploded from the pocket to finish two lengths in front of her stablemate Natural Herbie, who held on gamely for second. Anaffairtoremember, the other mare in the field, rounded out the trifecta with driver Peter Wrenn in the sulky. As the public's fourth choice, Lady Blitz returned $23 to her backers at the window.
Trained and owned by Verlin Yoder, Lady Blitz scored her seventh win from 17 seasonal starts and just missed her lifetime mark by a fifth of a second with the 1:53.4 victory. The daughter of Keystone Blitz-Oriental Lady is a multiple Indiana Sires Stakes champion, who now sports a lifetime bankroll of $388,281.
The upset trend continued in the featured pacing event of the evening as Thebestofjoel scored in 1:50.3 as the longest shot on the board in the $22,000 Invitational Pace. Dismissed at odds of 30-1, Thebestofjoel was able to turn a pocket trip into a win and give driver Tyler Smith his fourth win of the evening. Trained by Jeff Cullipher, Thebestofjoel has now won seven of 28 seasonal starts and equaled his lifetime mark with the win.
(Hoosier Park)